Career Advice About Startups

I have a startup that I'm working on by myself and recently had what I would classify as a "SEV 1 Production Incident" from a tiny feature update that greets the user when you login. In the mobile app if a user would login the screen would instantly go grey and no action could be performed again, even if the user exited and reopened the app. The issue occurred due to an exception being raised for a string function that was called. Claude 3.7 wrote that quick greeting function and I didn't pick up on any issues as in other languages (like JavaScript) there wouldn't be an exception for that specific string function (subString). But in Dart (the app is made in Flutter) it raises an out of bounds error. How I handled it - Deployed a hot-fix via shorebird patching (Codepush for Flutter) - Sent an email to all affected users with the fix (Shorebird requires users to exit and reopen the app to apply the fix) - Updated the welcome email, website to alert people of the issue & a Threads post - Sent an immediate App Store update with the true fix My take aways - Compartmentalise UI components so 1 breaking won’t break the entire app - Add sentry to log errors so I get emails when this happens (current error logging just gets sent to the server but with no email or detailed info) - Add a push notification service so users can be informed of any fixes/issues straight away - E2E tests might be a good idea Luckily my app was only recently released so not many users were affected and the true fix got approved quickly. But, what are some ways that you have addressed high severity prod bugs and could I have done anything differently? Thanks!

I had an interview with a startup which I got an offer from but I declined it. I would say I developed decent rapport with the recruiter. I have a friend who’s now applying to the same startup with slightly more YoE than me and for a different role but I don’t know if the recruiter also manages that role. I think my friend’s background may be a good fit for the startup since the startup regularly hires out from my friend’s current company. This friend also previously interned at FAANG. The startup hires for forward deployed engineers (an uncommon position) which is what my friend currently is, but my friend is looking to transition to SWE at the startup. I’m wondering if it’s appropriate for me to introduce my friend to the recruiter? I’m worried that if they bomb the interview it’ll reflect poorly on me and affect future job opportunities with the company.

I’m a senior iOS engineer at my company which has 8 mobile developers total. I believe there’s a lot of opportunity to better understand how our apps perform and crash – for example, we added Bluetooth support in the app which was buggy, but it was hard to diagnose since our logging is insufficient. Other engineers on the team are supportive of spending time on this project, but my manager and director want us to stay focused on feature work. We have a queue of features for every engineer for the next 6 months, so there’s no time to address tech debt. They’d like us to hire interns to take on some of the feature work, but that doesn’t give us more time. How can I convince the leadership team that it’s worth spending time on this logging project?

I’ve built my career in startups around the world (Asia and Europe), primarily in partnership and business development roles. My goal now is to land a Big Tech job, primarily in the US market. A lot of my experience has been in areas like crypto, where FAANG companies don’t have as much of a presence. So I don’t have a deep network of folks who can refer me. What can I do to successfully land a BD role in a large, tier 1 tech company in the next year or so?

I work on 2 week sprint cycle. Tasks are assigned and expected to be finished within those 2 weeks but we do have a generous leeway. Since I am the lead Android engineer, the bugs/crashes are reported to me to fix. Solving these takes time because sometimes I am not the one who worked on it. This leads to my current tasks getting deprioritized. I usually identify the ones that will affect the next release and get on those, but then there are also crucial bugs that affect key flows. I am wondering if I should also try to fix a bug as soon as they come in or discuss each one before fixing it.

I previously did some hourly development work for a startup, and the founder approached me and asked me to be a CTO on a part time basis until they have enough profit to support full-time employees, since the startup is bootstrapped. Last year they had ~$60k profit. Profit has consistently doubled year over year; they're on track to double this year as well. There is currently only one full-time employee (other than the founder), with contractors on an as-needed basis. The full-time employee is compensated through profit-share and equity, and the same would be true for me. I'm meeting with the founder later this week. I've never negotiated a role with a payment structure like this, so I would appreciate hearing about what would be realistic for me to expect. Thanks everybody! Please let me know if there's any other info that you would need in order to help me land on some numbers for equity and profit share.

Back at my previous company, there were levels, so I could create a list of steps to get to the next level. But given that I’m working at an earlier stage company, I can’t really do that. I want to become a senior engineer.

My offer letter had a clause that I’d get a $10K bonus if I did really well. However, “really well” doesn’t seem to be well-defined. What can I do to make sure I get that bonus?

When I code, I have a few habits that make it difficult for someone to follow: I frequently jump between functions and files, even if the one I wrote isn't finished. When working through my code, I often find it better to run the code to find and fix syntax issues instead of diligently reading line by line. I often use a random variable (could be the correct one or wrong one) as a placeholder while I type out the logic for some snippets and then update the variable to be the correct one after. Although disorganized, I find this method makes me the most productive. I am detail-oriented, write test cases, and often refactor so although my methods are disorganized, my code is not. You may disagree, but for this question let's assume the tradeoff is: ease to follow vs output This behaviour has negative consequences when someone watches me code. During pair programming I don't mind slowing down since high output isn't the objective and my abilities aren't being judged, but I struggle with deciding how much to slow down in live coding interviews. If I code in a more organized way and slow down to make my coding easier to follow, I would have less output. In a white-boarding interview it could mean the difference between a working solution and non-working solution. In a live coding exercise it could mean the difference between getting through all the iterations of a question/task or not. I am looking for input from interviewers, or scatter-brained devs like myself, on tips on the habits and tradeoffs to make when coding live. Examples of things I am thinking about Is there negative signal from frequently debugging over proof-reading code, and if so is there some threshold? If you're someone who has interviewed others, do you think there is a way for a candidate to be more disorganized but still clear. For example, if someones goes over the high level approach and says "I am now going to code out the rough happy path, it will take me a few minutes as iron out the syntax and refactor as I go", then I plug away, and afterwards, do a quick walkthrough of the completed code? Which would generally get a better score in a live coding interview? Fully implemented and hard to follow, or easy to follow but not finished? Thanks!

At my previous company, I proposed adding in some new JWT libraries. However, there was a lot of pushback from the principal engineers about security vulnerabilities in these libraries. We eventually figured out a path forward, but it took a long time - There was a huge back and forth on how to do things right. How can I optimize future situations like these, so I can set myself up for success at my new company?

At my org, peer review doesn’t exist. The feedback is usually delivered by my engineering manager and sometimes my team’s director. Would love to know how can I take the initiative to start an effective feedback process within my team.

Hey folks, I'm currently going through the promotion course. On the topic of good and bad EMs to work for in terms of promotion, Alex mentioned that a new manager at the company is not as good because they also have to learn how the new company works. I'm joining a new company next week and my manager is a new hire. Have anyone else been in this position, how did things go, and what worked and didn't work to help make the most of the situation? Thank you!

When joining a private startup, there is a lot of risk that your stock might become worthless in the future. Suppose, Google/Meta is offering you $150K stock per annum. For a comparable risk-reward tolerance, how much equity would you ask for a startup? Is there a formula you would use here based on factors such as the latest fundraising round, employee count, revenue, etc?

I have recently joined an series B startup as their only devOps engineer. I want to build a roadmap on how I want to build things, what are my team priorities and way to measure impact. Basically, its been almost 3 months now and I have only been doing tasks that my VP shares as a priority, and I want that in next 6 months, I am able to bring in roadmap and the vision that is required for this role. This is also something that my VP highlighted in 1:1 for me to be that senior leader/engineer that he envisions and as a way to get top rating here. My specific questions - I am not at all ready, I feel I don't know enough about this field. How do I get over this fear and the thought that I don't even compare to devs in my org? How do I go about creating the roadmap, what are the points at high level I should think for platforms team? I haven't done much coding in my life apart from writing scripts in my previous roles in devOps capacity. I am doing more here consciously. So, I am just not sure how to think in Platforms Team/software engineering perspective yet

There have been issues where another team is not executing properly, so our team needs to lend a lot of engineering cycles to help them fix their issue. This leads to us not having the resources we need to properly do our own work and us sort of owning the components that we helped the other team with as we have now made significant code changes there. Is there a way I can make this relationship between my team and this other team more balanced and less taxing on mine?